Saturday, January 23, 2016

- PM PJs

That's how it goes when I'm well into something. Time flies by and I really couldn't care less about appearances (although in my defense, I will say I did brush my teeth this morning).

So what was all the fuss about? Well, I had two things in mind: yesterday's lantana patch and today's snow patch ...

Patch #22 and Patch #23

Because even though we are well out of the East Coast weather system, I remember what driving snow felt like. Not to mention Jude's post this morning, which reminded me what driving snow looks like, which was indeed like the B-side of Patch #10.

The snow was easily done. The lantana, on the other hand, took up most of the morning. First in tracing its outlines ...

A trick I learned from Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain"trace" the visible outlines onto plexiglass using an erasable marker

transferring them to cloth ...

Drawn by eye using a permanent Pitt pen

looking closely at the colors in an attempt to find the right flosses ...

Look how much purple is in the leaves!

then finally committing to stitch ...

The leaves are okay, the flowers less so. I suppose I could call this an impression rather than a representation. Still, I learned along the way and didn't feel compelled to rip everything out in search of perfection. The patch records the reality of the process, which makes it good enough for me.

7 comments:

I love seeing your process to get that flower and leaves on cloth. And not expecting perfection seems like a good plan, for many areas of life. I like what you've been doing here very much. You may have been in PJ's...I wasn't even out of bed! Catching up from a stress-filled week :) Your little block letters on the calendar are adorable!

What a difference a species makes ... our lantanas are native to Texas and Mexico, low growing and beloved of the local wildlife, butterflies especially. How could anyone not love them? I couldn't believe my eyes when the fact sheet you linked to said your invasive species (from Brazil) grows to 3 meters high. Yikes?

It's a long way from Williamsburg, Virginia to the Texas Hill Country, but I've never looked back. Instead, my days are full of stitching, natural dyeing, assemblage art appreciation, grandparenting, cactus whacking, Americana music and Tex-Mex cooking ... not to mention wildflowers and critters.
As local bard Robert Earl Keen says, "The road goes on forever & the party never ends."